Author: Abhijit Bhattacharyya
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: March 16, 2002
Pakistan's General Pervez Musharraf
asked Indian I&B Minister Sushma Swaraj to lift the travel ban between
India and Pakistan during the SAARC inaugural at Islamabad on March 07,
2002. Just look at the unrealism of it all. General Musharraf - the Chief
of the Pakistani Army, the "President" of Pakistan, and the General "President"
of Islamic Pakistan - is "three-in-one". He is the Pakistani "Trimurti"
of the Hindu mythology - an incarnation of Islamic Pakistan's Brahma (the
creator), Vishnu (the preserver) and Maheshwar (the destroyer). General
Musharraf, the maker, preserver and breaker of Pakistani law, glibly talks
in front of the media on a subject to a lady which, in her capacity as
the Information and Broadcasting Minister of India, is beyond her power
and capacity to address.
All this on the General's home turf,
to show off his might to the captive gallery and prove his "bonafide intention"
to the big brother of the world, the United States. It is, of course, another
matter that the General got a "sweet" rebuff from the Indian lady, who
curtly told the "He Man of Pakistan" to talk to the right man at right
time and not waste his time and energy by dialling the wrong number. Sushma
Swaraj's retort stood out, "You are the President of Pakistan, I am only
the Information and Broadcasting Minister of India. I have no authority
to respond, either positive or negative."
Why did General Musharraf make such
a preposterous suggestion to Ms Sushma Swaraj, knowing well that she was
not the person to deal with the subject or decide the issue? Though the
reasons may be many, General Musharraf's intention to embarrass the Indian
delegation and holding India in poor light in an international stage was
transparent. Muslim Pakistan has to speak against non-Muslim, secular and
predominantly Hindu India - regardless of the subject and regardless also
of who is the host. It is the congenital disorder of the Pakistani ruler's
inferior psyche.
General Musharraf, the commando
and congenial public face of a hardline Pakistani establishment, challenged
Ms Swaraj on opening up cross-border air-routes, saying he would drop the
ban "here and now" if she did the same. Bravado in a vacuum! This was followed
by the sentence endorsing the Indian stand that there exists a "dangerous
situation on the border." Border is dangerous. Yet General Musharraf wants
to lift travel ban and open cross-border air routes! Why? What makes the
coup maestro, Mr Pervez "Kamal Ataturk" of Pakistan, to be so bold, brave,
wise and generous with "Kafir" India? Or is it a puzzled General?
Far from it. The next day Pakistan
moved to grant amnesty to over 2,000 activists of the five banned religious
and political groups including Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad. Now
link this "amnesty" to General's "challenge" to Ms Swaraj the previous
day, from the glittering dias of SAARC VIPs. You get the answer. Yes India's
statement explains the hollow utterances and the malicious action of the
Islamic-i-Jamhuriya-e- Pakistan. It raises serious questions about the
attitude and approach of the Pakistani authorities towards the whole issue
of dealing with terrorism and elimination of terrorist activity. Islamabad
has not acted on checking infiltration and cross-border terrorism. Clearly,
therefore, Pakistan needs to restore the flow of its own "traffic" of sundry
ISI agents for a to-and-fro journey across Dar-ul-Islam (Pakistan) and
Dar-ul-Harb (India). That will ensure its terrorists and fundamentalists
to spread fire in the midst of mixed Hindu-Muslim population of India,
to re-establish its "contacts" with the Indian variety of Muslim minority
fundamentalists and the born pseudo secularists of the "biryani", "murg
musallam" and Calcutta College Street Coffee House atheists and iconoclast
variety. His aim is to rub on the old festering wounds of the Hindu civilisation
and the ancient history and ethics of a riverine and water culture.
General Musharraf is also smart.
Rather, he is over-smart. He knows the art and craft of winning his former
enemy and countryman, and now an alien, Bangladesh Information Minister
Abdul Moyeen Khan, who set the ball rolling when he spoke of the 14-hour
inconvenience he had to go through to reach Pakistan, and hoped that things
would improve between New Delhi and Islamabad. Bangladesh Minister may
be intelligent enough, but perhaps he has forgotten that there exists his
own national carrier, Biman Bangladesh, which could have directly flown
him from Dhaka to Lahore to ensure avoidance of his "inconvenience". India
has not yet banned the overflying facilities of third country carriers.
Innumerable civilian foreign flights are operating over India.
Why doesn't Biman start a Dhaka-Lahore
flight? After all Dhaka was a provincial capital of Pakistan till the other
day. Why criticise India at a multilateral forum? Does the fault lie with
India, which has given Bangladesh so many bilateral flying rights to operate
to Mumbai, Calcutta, Delhi, Bangalore, etc? On the other hand, India has
just two stations, of Dhaka and Chittagong. And Biman has more operations
than the Indian carriers. Before advising offering gratuitous advice about
India's bilateral relations with a third country, Bangladesh would do well
to mind its own business and mend the fences, literally, technically and
metaphorically.
Yes, the recent violent protest
march by the Muslim fanatics of Bangladesh in front of the Indian High
Commission, Dhaka; the burning of the Indian Tricolour; the violence in
the Indo-Bangladesh border in West Bengal; the daily cross-border illegal
pushing of Bangladesh's unwanted people with an expertise in illegal activities,
need to be taken care of. Bangladesh should also ensure the safety of Hindu
women in Durga Puja pandals in the future.
Again, Bangladesh should recall
its Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Dr Moudud Ahmed's
recent declaration: "Awami League had incorporated secularism as guiding
philosophy in Bangladesh's constitution without taking the people's mandate."
Reportedly, the Minister is an eminent
lawyer having successfully served the Bangladeshi military regimes of both
Ziaur Rahman and HM Ershad. Dr Moudud's statement used the words "with
the instigation of the then Indian Government; although secularism was
not included in the declaration of independence" on the occasion of "spirit
of November 07," the day when "Bangladesh got rid of what they allege Indian
hegemony." The message is loud and clear. That "secularism is alien to
the majority having faith in Islam." That is Bangladesh today. Yet Bangladesh's
Finance Minister Saifur Rahman declares from the rooftop about Gujarat,
that "the cruel incidents that took place in India leading to a huge loss
of life and damage to properties have cast a slur on humanity and are condemnable."
Mr Rahman hoped India would take
urgent steps "to improve the situation and maintain communal harmony."
Well said, Uncle Rahman. Please ensure a safe Durga Puja and Holi in Bangladesh
and do allow the Bangladeshi Hindus to use music and drums for their festivals
as are being allowed in India during Muslim festivals.
That, in short, appears to have
been the hidden and subtle agenda of India bashing perpetrated by General
Musharraf, the military Messiah of Pakistan, in his call for resuming bilateral
travel and Islamic Bangladesh's Minister's "travails" from Dhaka to Islamabad.
(The author is an alumnus of the
National Defence College of India and the views are his personal)
